


They really do give out Top Gun KA-BARs

by cromarty



Series: Old Livejournal snippets [1]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Guns, M/M, Realizations, Season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-19
Updated: 2011-04-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 01:14:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1326253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cromarty/pseuds/cromarty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written mid season 1, April 2011. Steve figures out how he got so bad at aiming guns.</p>
            </blockquote>





	They really do give out Top Gun KA-BARs

**Author's Note:**

> Written mid season 1, April 2011. Imported from my old livejournal.
> 
> As the title suggests, I've accurately summarized Seal weapons training, based on descriptions in The Warrior Elite by Dick Couch.

Steve doesn't know what the hell his problem is. He was Top Gun in BUD/S, has the engraved KA-BAR to prove it. He was better at tapping those little metal targets than anyone his instructors had seen in five years. Even in SQT, when firearms training became more about hitting men than metal, he never lost his edge. In the teams he was fine, no incidents to speak of, but then it all started with Anton Hesse. Double tap, center mass, exactly like San Clemente, only for the first time Steve's instantaneous emotional compartmentalization was just a hair slow. They went and found his dad, hit him where he didn't think he lived anymore, and for once his sight wasn't quite perfect, his reaction just a tad sloppy, and his second shot ricocheted off the vest and into Anton's neck. It takes months, because he didn't even know Danny existed back then, but Steve finally puts it together that _that's_ the moment it started.

 

The fact that he even has a problem doesn't really gel for him until Chin makes an idle comment over lunch that they can no sooner name a lead on this case than they've burned it. Steve lets Danny work up a nice head of steam about procedure _again_ while he takes a mental break, because something about Chin's observation bugged him. By the time Danny kicks him under the table, Steve's taken stock of all the cases starting with Danny shooting Fred Doran right when Steve was about to get some real information about Victor Hesse. He's counted, even, and it has dawned on him that ever since Meka Hanamoa's case, every single time one of them has expressed the fact that they need a suspect alive, that suspect has ended up dead. And it's been Steve's fault as much as anyone else's, which is why he lets Danny drive them back from lunch while he figures out what the hell his problem is. 

Danny punches his shoulder, hard, at a stoplight, and Steve apologizes for not listening by brushing his hand along Danny's on the gearshift. The sense memory is so strong he barely stops himself from gasping. He can see it playing in his mind like a security tape: Danny's hand brushes his as they tail Robert Rovin and less than 10 minutes later Danny is literally leaping from the moving car. Steve’s on Danny’s six for once as Danny scans for their runner above them, and there’s panic in his voice as he remembers it when Henry Duncan steps out from his hiding spot and points his gun directly at Danny’s chest. Something of the memory must show in his face, because the next time Danny glances over he reaches out to touch the spot he punched and says, “hey” in a soft voice, and before Steve can stop himself he’s blurting “You’re my goddamn problem!" 

Danny pulls sharply onto the shoulder and just looks at him, speechless for once in his life, and if Steve weren’t freaking out about how badly he just screwed this up he’d be able to devote a little more attention to that fact.   
“Wait, no, _wait_ , that’s not what I meant. I meant I figured out what my problem is, the thing that Chin said, Danny, don’t think, I mean, you’re a problem I _want_ to have! It’s just I didn’t realize, and…” he _does_ realize he’s babbling, and trails off, takes a breath without looking at Danny sitting there, messing with his training instincts, and decides to go for it.  
“Okay, what I meant to say, and don’t punch me again,” he makes eye contact long enough to see that Danny’s looking more amused than he thought he’d be, “what I meant to say was I love you so much I can’t shoot straight anymore.”


End file.
